In the hydrocarbon (oil and gas) industry, metal pipes, or pipelines, are used in a variety of situations, from the drilling and extraction (production) of hydrocarbons to the transportation of hydrocarbons. For example, in the production of hydrocarbons, metal pipes may be positioned within wellbores for the extraction of hydrocarbons from a subterranean reservoir. Additionally or alternatively, metal pipes may be positioned within wellbores for the delivery of fluids to a subterranean reservoir, for example, to displace the hydrocarbons being extracted from the subterranean reservoir. Extraction sites may be on land and/or offshore. Once extracted, the hydrocarbons may be transported over distances—sometimes very long distance—through pipes. Such pipes used to transport hydrocarbons, which may be referred to as pipelines due to their length, may be subterranean, may be above-the-ground, and/or may be underwater.
Long pipes, or pipelines, used in the hydrocarbon industry, whether installed subterranean, aboveground, and/or underwater, are typically first manufactured in relatively short segments (e.g., 5-25 meters in length) at a manufacturing facility, which may be hundreds or thousands of kilometers, or even continents, away from an eventual installation site for the pipe, or pipeline, such as a hydrocarbon production or transportation site. These segments are then transported to the installation site, for example, by truck, rail, and/or ship, and typically are then manually welded together on-site to form a long pipeline. In some situations, the final pipeline may be hundreds, or even thousands, of kilometers long, with such pipelines requiring 40-200 or more separately welded joints per kilometer of length, often amounting to tens of thousands of individual welded joints for a single pipeline. The transportation and welding requirements may be exacerbated when the pipes are to be transported to and joined to form a pipeline in arctic and other regions where environmental conditions limit the time periods in which these operations may be performed. Added difficulties of welding and pipe joint transportation may occur when large-diameter pipes (such as pipes having diameters of at least 0.5 meters) or thick wall pipes (such as pipes having walls with thicknesses of at least 2 cm) are required.
Extruded plastic pipes and fiber-wrapped pipes have been proposed as methods to continuously form pipe, with illustrative examples of such pipes and formation methods being disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,377,908 and 3,948,292. However, extruded pipes are typically not suitable for high pressure. Fiber-wrapped pipes are complex to manufacture, especially outside of a specialty construction facility. Moreover, both types of pipe are difficult join up with existing metal pipe segments since neither plastic pipes nor fiber-wrapped pipes are weldable. Also, quality assurance may be difficult using conventional and/or suitable in-field methods, which tend to be designed for use with metal pipes. Additionally, fiber-winding methods are generally unwieldy for large diameter, long pipe segments since the winding equipment needs to rotate around the pipe segment or the pipe segment itself needs to be rotated.
Methods have been disclosed in the past for making multilayer-walled pipes and pressure vessels. An early example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,072,273, which describes a method of making a pressure vessel shell. The method includes forming a plurality of metal sheets; superimposing one sheet upon the other; applying substantially uniform pressure both externally and internally of the superimposed sheets to hold them tightly together; and joining the sheets together along their respective seams while such pressure is maintained. Another example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,925,118, which describes a pressure vessel having side walls that comprise a plurality of concentric tubular members that form a laminated structure. The individual members of the pressure vessel are constituted by a sheet metal blank that is shaped into tubular form and fused at its meeting edges with the adjacent tubular member. Additional illustrative, non-exclusive examples of laminated metallic pipe and pressure vessel constructions are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,149,513, 3,610,290, 4,244,482, 5,097,585, 5,755,266, 2,209,402, and 3,425,380.